Lauren Rochholz

16 November 2004

HRS 220

Word Count: 1775

“Gotami’s Story” Reading Analysis

  1. Selective Summary
  2. Introduction
  3. Secondary Analysis: Jonathan S. Walters
  4. Role of “Gotami’s Story” in the Apadana and post-Asokan period
  5. Gotami as a combatant of misogyny
  6. Primary Analysis: “Gotami’s Story”
  7. Gotami’s preparation for “going out” and request for Buddha’s permission
  8. Others’ reluctance about Gotami’s “going out”
  9. Gotami’s final attainment of nirvana

D.Conclusion

  1. Evaluation
  2. Effectiveness of “Gotami’s Story” as influence on other Buddhists
  3. Gotami and Buddha as proponents of female capability
  4. Wider Relevance

Selective Summary

“Gotami’s Story” is a two-part work containing a short history and analysis of a Buddhist story followed by a translation of the story itself. Jonathan S. Walters introduces the story with a short recounting of significant events in Indian history, thereby giving some background information to which the reader can relate the narrative. He intersperses this account with commentary on the role of Gotami in the Buddhist faith and the telling of her story as an example of female potential in a possibly misunderstood religion.

The Apadana is a collection of “moral biographies” written in the two centuries before the Common Era. “Gotami’s Story” is a single tale from this compilation, one of the many composed by forty Buddhist nuns and over five hundred Buddhist monks. The “unification of the Indian subcontinent in the third century B.C.E.” by Asoka Maurya instigated a change in the cultural perception of Buddhism; that is, the religion became more universal in its perceived application to normal, everyday lives:

The early paradigms – saints who renounce the world and attain nirvana – were not immediately appropriate for the bulk of society newly included within Buddhism’s post-Asokan universal embrace, who would not renounce the world in the present life but would instead continue to produce karma and, consequently, future existence (113).

The Apadana stories, likely a consequence of this strain of thought, aspired to depict monks and nuns in their incarnations as commoners and became “a virtual blueprint” for “every occupation and station in life, every age, every caste, every type of being (male and female, animals and deities, as well as humans)” (114).

“Gotami’s Story” and the biographies of the other nuns did much to further this cause of universality. Problems inherent in Buddhist customs were addressed by these stories, working to “combat misogynist attitudes that continued among Indian Buddhists despite the Buddha’s own apparent egalitarianism” (114). Walters contends that “Gotami’s Story” is directed at all Buddhist women, nuns, laywomen, and goddess alike. The main character, Gotami, the “female counterpart of the Buddha, the founder and leader of the nuns’ order,” through a series of directives, parodies, and clarifications, advises women “they should follow her in following the Buddha’s path.” Furthermore, as evidence of her belief in female potential, Gotami “affirms that even children females have attained the most exalted states...and puts on her show of miracles to demonstrate how much a woman can achieve” (116).

Gotami’s “going out” is her reward after several incarnations and many years of preparation. Before and after requesting and obtaining the Buddha’s permission for this act (Verse 48), she relates bits of wisdom and “mini-apadanas” to various audiences as testament to her readiness. Gotami cites her devout worship of the Buddha (Verse 22), her surrender of her home to seek enlightenment (Verse 23), her loathing of her body as a “sick house like a serpent’s lair...pastured for old age and death, and covered with suffering’s slime” (Verses 56-57), and her peacefulness in ultimate devotion to the Buddha (Verse 73) as evidence of the completeness needed for nirvana. She also recounts her ascendancy to sainthood, beginning with her birth “one hundred thousand eons ago” at the time of the Buddha Padumuttara (Verse 95). After her pursuit of him, the Buddha Padumuttara allowed Gotami to see her future “preeminence among the senior nuns” (Verse 105). Her first rebirth was “among the highest gods who lived in Tavatisma [“Thirty-Three”],” where she “shone, attaining supreme power” (Verse 109). Following that existence, she was reborn into a “slaves’ village” (Verse 110), and, finally, into her present life as the “Victor’s nurse” (Verse 116). In each manifestation Gotami grasped more in depth the qualities necessary for “going out.”

Although Gotami believes herself ready to pass out of existence, others mourn at the thought of losing her on earth. The five hundred nuns who eventually accompany her to nirvana are the first to lament Gotami’s “going out.” As devout Buddhists, however, they quickly change their attitudes: “If this is what you want, sister – the unsurpassed pure going out – then, pious one, with his assent, we all will go out too” (Verse 100). Gotami’s announcement of her decision to Nanda, Rahula, and Ananda prompts a mixed reaction; that is, Nanda and Rahula, “fully detached from worldly ties, are unmoved, but Ananda, still in training, weeps at the news” (115). Nanda and Rahula consider Gotami’s position as preferable to the “impermanence” of the things of this world, while Ananda “sheds tears” and “wails” at the thought of the “going out” of Gotami and the Buddha (Verse 61). Indeed, he seems to put a negative spin on the concept of nirvana as “nonexistence” and a “fire without fuel” (Verse 62). Gotami consoles Ananda, advising him that if he is truly “intent on serving the Buddha,” then he should rather “laugh” and celebrate her passing out of existence (Verses 63-65).

At the Buddha’s urging, Gotami begins her “going out” in a spectacular fashion, displaying various physical feats of impossibility to the astonished masses. She appears cloned, disappears, walks through walls and the sky, sinks into the earth, walks on water, flies “like a bird,” “controls the space right up to God’s own home,” makes the earth into her parasol, emanates the glow of “six suns,” “garland[s] the earth in flames,” holds mountains in her hands, and creates “torrential rains” (Verses 81-90). After this display, she says a final goodbye to the Buddha and the laypeople, urging them to follow her path and give up the world’s tangibles for nirvana. Alone, she enters and re-enters the various levels of altered states, permanently leaving the earth rather conspicuously: “There was a great earthquake; lightening fell from the sky. The thunder rumbled loudly, the deities there wailed; a shower of flowers from the sky rained down upon the earth” (Verses 148-149). Ananda and the other monks honor her with an extensive funeral.

Evaluation

Walters argues that “Gotami’s Story” “addresses itself to Buddhist women, from nuns striving for nirvana here and now to laywomen and goddesses for whom the goal remains more remote” (116). He contends that Gotami is “the female counterpart of the Buddha, the founder and leader of the nuns’ order who parallels (though does not supersede) Gotama, the founder and leader of the monks’ order. Gotami is represented as the Buddha for women” (117). With “Gotami’s Story” as one’s only frame of reference, this assertion is hard to dispute. Gotami does, indeed, appear to be more spiritually awake than every other character besides the Buddha himself.

In addition to Gotami’s preeminence prior to her “going out,” though, Walters asserts that her story has lasting affects on female Buddhists in another way:

In the karmically black and white world of the Apadana, males and females tread parallel yet distinct paths. Men were always male in previous lives; women always female. This is the reason that the monks’ biographies were not suitable paradigms for that half of universal society which is not male (117).

In other words, Walters believes that women, Buddhists in particular, can relate better to a woman (Gotami) who has experienced many different social statuses than a man who has had the same history. For Walters, therein lies much of the story’s importance. This contention seems reasonable; however, one might challenge that Gotami’s four incarnations – as a woman in a rich clan of ministers with many servants (Verse 96), as a goddess among the “highest gods” (Verse 107), as a slave (Verse 110), and as the foster mother of the Buddha (Verse 116) – hardly constitute “average” existences, thereby potentially limiting the applicability of her story to the common woman.

Walters argues that this representation of the Buddha depicts the deity as an advocate of woman’s ability to triumph over the tedium of rebirth. The Buddha is, indeed, supportive of Gotami and her powers: he gives her permission to attain “parinirvana,” he remarks upon her going out that “yet there are these fools who doubt that women too can grasp the truth. Gotami, show miracles, that they might give up their false views” (Verse 79), he complements her as “wise,” a “master of great powers” with a “divine-ear,” a “divine-eye,” and “purified knowledge of meaning” (Verses 183-186). However, this story in itself is not conclusive evidence of the Buddha’s “egalitarianism;” it is fairly irrefutable that the Buddha admires Gotami, but without further substantiation (which may, and probably does, exist) it does not indicate a respect for all women. Additionally, as Walters himself points out, this story was written by women for women; an adversarial Buddha would not further the attempt to create a model story for female Buddhists.

Wider Relevance

Walters represents the power of Gotami in the Buddhist faith as substantial. For somebody with very little exposure to this religion, Gotami does, indeed, appear to be a true role model. The Buddha’s apparent respect for her accomplishments furthers this claim. As compared with female figures in the other traditions we have studied, Gotami is unique in her status among her counterparts. Although women have certainly occupied significant positions within other rituals and religions (the monastic nuns of the medieval Christian period, the Anastenarias, the wives in the Hindu rituals), Gotami appears to be the only one who is truly free to worship and gain knowledge as she sees fit within the boundaries of the faith. She does not need to ask permission of a husband to participate in any rites; she is not required by social or religious law to even have a husband. Gotami espouses her beliefs to men and gains their respect, the Buddha foremost among these admirers. The Christian mystics, who also share their visions with other believers, experience this as well; however, the acceptance of their revelations is based mostly on the nuns’ non-threatening social standing. Yet, Gotami is, as represented by Walters, potentially a threat to the Buddha; her funeral is “better than the Buddha’s own, [and] she appears to be the very center of the universe” (117). But the Buddha not only reveres Gotami, he encourages others to do the same.

Kathryn Williams

HRS 220/ Dubois

November 14, 2004

Word Count: 2124

Outline: Analysis of “Gotami’s Story”

Introduction

Selective Summary

A. Walter’s Article

  • History and purpose of Apadana literature
  • Gotami’s Story as part of Apadana genre
  • Gotami as role-model and women’s advocate
  • Gotami as Buddha for women

B. Gotami-apadana

  • Gotami: “Mother of the Buddha”
  • Gotami: Devotee of the Buddha
  • Gotami: Role-model for Buddhists

C. Conclusions

Evaluation

A. Gotami: Role-Model or Buddhi?

Wider Relevance

  1. Feminine relationship with the divine
  2. Gotami as conduit to “the other.”

Reading Analysis: Gotami’s Story

In his article, “Gotami’s Story,” Jonathan S. Walters acquaints modern readers with some of the social and religious ideals of third-century Theravada Buddhists, most particularly the themes that concern “women’s religiosity.” The main inspiration for his article is the Gotami-apadana (Gotami’s Story) and he builds most of his claims around certain passages in the story. His central argument is that Gotami is the Buddha figure for Buddhist women. Walters also includes Gotami’s Story itself, allowing readers to appreciate the artistic and spiritual beauty of the original story separate from his commentary. Due to the “dual-nature” of this reading selection, I will first summarize Walter’s article, then proceed to a selective summary of the primary source, Gotami-apadana.

Walter’s Article: Selective Summary

The Gotami-apadana is the story of Mahapajapati Gotami, maternal aunt and foster-mother to the Buddha and, as Walters proposes, the female spiritual counterpart to the Buddha (Walters, 113, 117). Her story is included in a collection of moral biographies, Apadana, which is part of a larger canon, Khud-daka-nikaya (Walters, 113). The Apadana was written during a period of social change and political expansion in Buddhist history, approximately 200-100 BCE (Walters, 113). The biographies in the Apanada are elaborated accounts of earlier collections of Pali verses (gatha), which may have originated during the time of the Buddha himself. Many Buddhists believe these stories were originally spoken by the Buddha’s most famous disciples after they became saints; the stories are known as Monk’s Verses (Theragatha) and Nun’s Verses (Therigatha) and are ascribed to about five hundred and fifty monks and forty nuns (Walters, 113).

After the changes in post-Asokan society, the stories of ascetic monks and nuns renouncing the world and attaining nirvana did not possess the traditional appeal for a new group of followers who did not plan to renounce the world (Walters, 114). The challenge for Buddhist leaders was to find something meaningful in these early stories that would help guide post-Asokan Buddhist followers to understand appropriate behaviors — in other words, a new set of role models was needed. It was determined that this new era of readers would benefit most by knowing what the monks and nuns did in their previous lives when they were just beginning to travel their path. The Apadana was born to meet this need, and the stories contained therein became models of and for the person at the beginning of the path, a “virtual blueprint for a new universal society” (Walters, 114). Though the nuances of individual stories varied, each monk or nun illustrated the piety necessary to achieve the rewards of heavenly bliss and nirvana in the time of the coming Buddha, Maitreya (Love)” (Walters, 114).

In addition to meeting the universal needs expressed above Gotami-apadana, along with the other moral biographies of nuns, addressed certain problematic issues that had surfaced concerning the role of women in Buddhist practice (Walters, 114). These stories, which were probably composed by women, serve not only as a gender-specific moral compass for the female spiritual devotee, but also as a means to combat misogynist attitudes that had developed among Indian Buddhists despite the Buddha’s ideal of egalitarianism (Walters, 114).

While Gotami-apadana is a good example of the Apadana genre as a whole, it is also unique in its complexity and in the fact that it focuses not on Gotami’s life but on her death (Walters, 115). While this emphasis on death may seem odd in contrast to the other stories in the Apadana, it makes perfect sense when one understands that Gotami’s extraordinary “religious death” (the “great going out”) was her ultimate achievement (Walters, 116). Moreover, Gotami-apadana addresses themes of women’s religiosity while being perfectly unique in its answer to a persistent need for Buddhist women: If the Buddha’s (a male) “great going out” opened to door to arhatship, guaranteeing the finality of the monks’ (male’s) nirvana, who would guarantee that nuns’ (female’s) nirvana would be final as well? The answer: Gotami (Walters, 117). As the female counterpart of the Buddha (linguistically and spiritually), Gotami is the founder and leader of the nun’s order and her life parallels, without superseding, that of the Buddha (Walters, 117). What Gotama (the Buddha) was for men, Gotami (the Buddhi, or feminine Buddha) was for women: “the spiritual center of their universe” (Walters, 117).

Gotami-apadana: Selective Summary

While biographical information about Gotami’s birth and heritage can be found in “Gotami’s Story,” I will focus on the passages in the story that illuminate Gotami’s spiritual significance for the “women’s religiosity” of post-Asokan Theravada Buddhism. I should note that, in my attempt to focus specifically on this primary source material, I am summarizing the story irrespective of Walter’s interpretation. I will address the link between Walter’s article and Gotami-apadana in my conclusion and evaluation.

Gotami is portrayed a powerful figure, both spiritually and socially. I believe it is the primary goal of the Gotami-apadana to glorify Gotami as a role-model for Buddhists. However, I think the overarching message is that it is the Buddha himself who is the most significant figure in Buddhist spirituality, and that readers of Gotami-apadana are to keep this in mind at all times.